Master of Arts in Mass Communications

at University of Bedfordshire - Luton Campus United Kingdom

Offering the in-depth technical and professional training you need for a career as an information technologist, this course is run in collaboration with local companies so you gain real-world experience while studying.

In your first year, you develop the skills to study the specialist topics later in the course including an introduction to software; hardware and how computers are built; how computers work with databases; and Structured Query Language (NoSQL). You will also learn about software applications (such as Microsoft, Oracle and Java) and hardware installation, configuration and maintenance.

In year two, you focus on software design and development; how software and hardware work together; designing secure systems; and approaches for testing software.

Learning in your final year focuses on research methods and emerging technologies as you undertake an independent IT project.

Why choose this course?

• It offers in-depth technical and professional training, including CompTia, Security+ and CCNA, which are required to practise as an information technologist
• Throughout the course, you benefit from work-based learning projects and hands-on experience which prepare you to graduate as a professional
• You learn how a wide range of technology can be deployed to provide systems that support organisations to achieve their business objectives
• You develop the knowledge and skills to draw out user requirements from non-IT experts and transform these into implemented system-level designs
• You will be able to lead an IT project, using transferable skills such as effective collaboration and critical thinking
• Take the course over four years and include a professional placement year (see below) where you can gain experience, build your CV and make contacts for the future

The MSc International Finance and Banking is designed to enable you to become a more effective and enterprising manager in a range of financial organisations in a knowledge-based global economy.

Finance and Banking as a study area is distinct from Accounting in that it is interdisciplinary and draws upon a wide range of soft and hard sciences.

Thus at post graduate level the study must be integrative, blending economic, mathematical and financial theory with analytical approaches to solving complex problems and implementing solutions.

Finance must also be treated as international in context to ensure relevance in the global economy.

The course aims to enable you to critically analyse the role of banking within international financial markets.

Attention is also placed on developing a contemporary empirical understanding of the behaviour of international financial markets that is particularly relevant for the aspects of international banking, alongside providing you with the ICT and research skills required by employers in this highly competitive banking sector.

It is specially designed for those seeking a management career in the international banking system, international corporations or in capital markets.

Economies are increasingly global. With this degree - designed to give you the knowledge and skills to manage a business effectively in the global context - show potential employers that you understand how business operates on an international scale.

Alongside traditional business skills and disciplines such as strategy, human resource management, finance, operations and marketing, you will acquire global skills via units such as international economics, global marketing, and Intercultural awareness in business.

In your final year you are supported in finding a placement which delivers invaluable international experience, as well as credit towards your degree, as you apply your learning to project work in a live setting.

Why choose this course?
This innovative and interdisciplinary course will help you to gain the skills and knowledge required in key business disciplines coupled with a broader global business perspective. The course provides you with a deeper appreciation of the roles and relationships of businesses in an international context, together with the specific operational and strategic issues, challenges and opportunities that businesses face when they start operating at an international level.

You will also gain a working understanding of foundational concepts in the key functional and operational areas, including business management, business research, marketing, finance, accounting, operations management, human resource management, interpersonal and collaborative communication skills, covering important aspects of working in an international and multi-cultural environment.

The course offers a rich learning experience

• Is highly vocational with a focus on knowledge and understanding of business organisations from a global perspective;
• Focuses on both large and small organisational contexts;
• Instils a high level of professionalism from the outset;
• Has a strong theoretical base in each unit;
• Develops interpersonal and collaborative communication skills
• Includes a supervised final year dissertation involving an individually conducted research element;
• Provides further opportunity for professional development in a work placement relevant to international business
• Has small class interactive teaching environments;
• Focuses on hard and soft management skills for the 21st century

Choose International Business at Bedfordshire and

• Learn through lectures, seminars and workshops, plus projects, research exercises, presentations, and case study analyses with a focus on using your knowledge and understanding in practice
• Study business management, business research, marketing, finance, accounting, operations management and human resource management
• Develop your communication and collaborative skills as well as a recognisable high level of professionalism, enabling you to fit in and be effective from day one
• Gain an understanding of the roles and relationships of businesses in the international arena, and the specific operational and strategic issues, challenges and opportunities that they face at an international level
• Explore opportunities for further postgraduate and professional study
• Benefit from a degree which gives you understanding of global business operations, analytical and problem-solving skills, and personal effectiveness and credibility when working across cultures in international teams – attributes which are highly attractive to potential employers

This course responds to the growing market demand for graduates who aim to deal with the information and organisation needs of businesses.

As a student, you will gain understanding of information and organisation structures in a business, as well as skills of exploiting existing software that is required for designing and developing information systems.

You will also obtain skills and ability to interact with business analysts, computer programmers, software engineers and computer scientists.

Why choose this course?
The course will provide you with academic and technical skills to analyse, interpret and make sense of how to handle the huge amount of ubiquitous data created daily. It will enable you to meet the demands of tomorrows information society and draws from our expert staff in Information Systems, Data Science and Computing.

• Learn to exploit and integrate existing software, and design information systems
• Study web database management systems, decision support systems and data mining
• Develop the technical ability to interact with business analysts, computer programmers, software engineers and computer scientists
• Gain an understanding of the integration of industrial standard technologies and advanced information technology strategies, including grid and cloud computing
• Explore your career opportunities with our industry contacts
• Challenge your intellectual abilities as you focus on the skills needed to conceptualise, develop and manage information systems
• Benefit from the opportunity to study in a dedicated environment using the latest hi-tech industry standard equipment

The study of finance is key to understanding how businesses operate, governments exercise policies and countries operate and compete with each other.

This course will provide you with an intimate knowledge of the structural issues economies are facing and the way they are being realised in today’s economics affairs through the dominance of financial institutions.

Through blended learning you will study the theoretical background and work with industry on real business problems to develop the personal and professional skills you need to be a key player in this global, knowledge-based economy

Why choose this course?

• Study the related areas of economics, financial markets and portfolio management, accounting and finance and strategic management
• Gain advanced knowledge of financial organisations and institutions, as well as of government policies and the critical capabilities to apply theory to complex issues
• Explore your enterprise, creativity and independence – the skills required by employers - through your dissertation unit
• Develop your employability by undertaking a work placement with the opportunity to work on a live project
• Benefit from studying with a Business School that has partners across the world enabling you to examine the cross-culture perspectives essential to organisations in the global markets

The advent of digital media has created an explosion of possibilities when it comes to illustration. This innovative course gives you the drawing skills, techniques and industry know-how to produce, distribute and publish your graphic work.

This course takes in the full scope of contemporary illustration practice from craft-based techniques and drawing to digital and sequential moving image-based work. It ensures you develop the drawing, photography and digital-media skills you need for a career in areas such as film, animation, music video, advertising, publishing, video games and app design.

Working in small, lively, creative groups, you study a cluster of design courses including Animation and Graphic Design, with units covering materials and methods; studio practice; context and ideas; thinking through making; collaborative partnerships; and the critical and creative background to modern design.

Why choose this course?

• Work in spacious, well-equipped studios and benefit from high-spec facilities in digital media, motion graphics, bookmaking, stop motion, risograph printing and screen printing
• Gain skills and confidence with regular one-to-one contact with industry-experienced teaching staff and excellent technical support
• Explore the changing role of the designer and design in society so you can challenge current social, political and environmental thinking in your work
• Develop skills in creative problem solving, collaboration and entrepreneurship
• Take the course over four years and benefit from a year’s placement in industry, building your experience and making contacts for the future
• If you need to step up into higher education, start with a Foundation Year which gives you guaranteed entry to the undergraduate course

The MSc Automotive Engineering for Electric Vehicles is about educating and training senior vehicle developers and offering them in-depth technical training for R&D of next generation low carbon or non-carbon vehicles.

The course focuses on new and emerging sustainable automotive technologies, such as hybrid electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles.

Throughout the course, you will have the opportunity to use state-of-the-art design and advanced development and simulation tools, to vehicle development, design, calibration and optimisation.

By closely collaborating with local automotive and motorsport companies, you will contribute to real world solutions to vehicle R&D.

The Automotive Engineering Lab suite includes a range of experimental facilities, such as an engine test bed with full instrumentation, two advanced automotive engine demonstrators, various test rigs for vehicle aerodynamics, materials and engineering structure, machining workshop, etc. 3D printers and a CAE lab.

These form an important part of the course, allowing the exploration of many practical aspects of automotive engineering, and to further development of hands-on skills.

Why choose this course?

• State-of-the-art equipment for electric vehicles
• Access to a wide range of engineering facilities within the University’s STEM building
• Interdisciplinary consideration of alternative energy systems

Bringing together the emerging fields of forensic science and criminology, this course gives you the lab skills and practical crime-scene experience of the scientist combined with a criminological exploration of why people commit crime, and the role of the police and criminal justice system in its prevention.

Our degree provides you with a foundation in the biological and chemical sciences that apply to forensic science as well as exploring criminological theory, crime-scene investigation and the role of scene-of-crime officers. In the Criminology units, you gain understanding of how data can be analysed to identify and predict factors that may cause people to commit crime. You also explore the role of forensic science, the police and the criminal justice system in the prevention, deterrence and punishment of criminal behaviour.

The course has been designed to develop your skills in laboratory analysis; the interpretation and evaluation of evidence; and the communication of scientific findings. You also learn how to assess the strengths and weaknesses of different criminological explanations; make reasoned arguments; and bring together information from different sources.

Why choose this course?

• Explore topics at the forefront of current developments in forensic science
• Study in a specialist forensic laboratory, with key laboratory skills incorporated into most of the units
• Learn the skills and techniques needed to evaluate a real-life crime scene in our scene-of-crime lab, designed to resemble an 'normal' flat
• Work with a Forensic Science team that includes international experts in the psychology of criminal behaviour and forensics experts from a variety of operational backgrounds
• Acquire key transferable skills including in oral and written communication; IT; group and team work; analysis; critical thinking; and problem solving
• Take the course over four years and include a fee-free year in industry, gaining work experience, building your CV and making contacts for the future
• If you need a step up into higher education, start with a Foundation Year which guarantees you a place on the degree course

The course will improve your knowledge and skills (including creative leadership and problem solving skills) to manage projects effectively in the commercial, public and -third' sectors (including the voluntary sector); including managing projects for todays global companies over international boundaries.

This course provides you with those all-important real-life experiences. The course will enable you to learn from your experience of managing real projects by critically assessing a range of project management methodologies/bodies of knowledge, theories, issues, and tools and techniques.

The MBA is a flagship generalist management qualification designed to meet the needs of early career individuals and is structured to support your aspirations for fast track career progression through the development of leadership and strategic management skills and a contemporary understanding of business.

The course adopts a practice-led curriculum and aims to develop an advanced knowledge of organisations and their effective management in the dynamic competitive global context, and the ability to creatively apply this knowledge and understanding to complex issues to systematically and innovatively enhance strategic business and management practice.

This offers a challenging learning opportunity to encourage the integration of theory and practice supported by experienced academics with substantial management experience.

Through practice events you will work with academics and professors of practice on live consultancy projects with leading employers in organisations across private, public and not-for-profit sectors to support your personal and professional development as a creative and innovative leader with the knowledge and skills needed in the global, knowledge-based economy.

You will develop the attributes and skills expected of post-graduates, as recognised by professional and industry bodies such as the Chartered Management Institute and the Confederation of British Industry, including team-working, negotiation skills, leadership, confidence and the ability to apply critical and creative thinking to complex and unclear problems to develop innovative solutions.

This degree aims to enhance your professional prospects by developing your capability to apply the latest thinking relating to organisational development and change in the competitive global context. Successful completion of the MBA highlights your potential to have a real impact on the transformation of the organisation you join.